Archive for May, 2007

This is my “idea bank” that I’m offering to Tina and Celine to fuel our “creative process.” If YOU see something that just makes you scream: “I must buy this vampire anthology right now!” Let us know, huh? Thanks!

stock photos #1

stock photos #2

stock photos #3

stock photos #4

oooooo….what about this one?
the beauty of April Martinez is that she can change colors on this kind of stuff to suit our needs.

I like this one, quite a bit. Darr

Hi

For comments on the cover art process, I’ve opened posting today to anyone. No Google Account needed. Play nice, please

Thank you,

Darragha

It’s time for Tina Holland, Celine Chatillion and I to put our pretty heads together and come up with a plan for the cover art for “Of Flesh and Blood.”

LSB uses the fabulous April Martinez and her stable of artists to produce our cover art. I am not a fan of poser covers, so I opt for “stock art” morphing to get the cover I envision. It’s either use stock art or go for hand-drawn art, like from LW Perkins–which takes longer but can have amazing results. There’s also the “anime-type” covers that Ann Cain does.

Tina, Celine and I like the two posted stock art photos. April will, of course, change the covers (hair color, background, etc.) to match our vision–so it’s basically the pose we’re looking at. Why these two?

1) because they have not been downloaded 1000 times
2) because I haven’t seen them on other covers right off
3) because both are a bit different than the standard “nekkid male torso” cover

Now: here are our questions to you.

A) Which would catch you eye most?
B) Why? (example: I wouldn’t buy a vampire erotica book with a female on the cover or other reason)

So, please…share your thoughts. They are valued!

Thanks,

Darragha

Completely off the cuff blurb for Polishing Saber, because I haven’t *really* written said blurb yet. So, read away and please improve upon it as you will! Thanks!

Polishing Saber is not your average vampire tale. No Carpathians. No dark, brooding, deadly handsome men wanting to give you the ultimate hickey. Polishing Saber’s vampire is one of the Old Ones–kin to the Hidden Folk in Icelandic mythology. Shape-shifters, too, they have protected their homeland for millennia from the insidious draugur–witches wearing dead man’s trousers. The Necropants. Flayed from the skin of a corpse, steeped with magic runes and foul desires to control, usurp and bring unhealthy changes to Iceland, the Necropants have a will of their own. Including the need for their wearer to consume blood.

Necropants have been found. An Old One has awakened. Big business is planning the utter destruction of Iceland’s pristine wilderness. And Saber Evangelista holds the key that all three forces wish to possess.

Saber, an African-American/Korean descent American woman with a kick-ass attitude, brains more powerful than Einstein’s and a fabulous booty is all about the money. Transferred to Iceland as a computer consultant for AlumaTrends, Saber’s poor choices from the past catch up with her when she finds herself in bed–literally and figuratively–with forces from both sides.

I invite Celine and Tina to post their blurbs! In a comment or email them to me and I’ll post them here later tonight.

Please email me your snail mail address at darragha @ gmail.com (no spaces)

Thanks to all who posted!

Darr

But darn it–I’m having trouble picking a title.

Basis: Saber has completely lost faith that true love exists. While reading “The Orca King” ebook, she devices a plan to destroy a street on Orca Island called “Lover’s Lane.” While staying at Doe Bay in a little cabin directly across from the Sweet Spot Yurt, she notices a very attractice man, who smiles slyly at her and makes her thing that perhaps one more romp wouldn’t hurt before she swears off me and goes to jail for defacing public property. While relaxing in the natural hot springs at Doe Bay, a Shamanic pracitioner/student from Bastyr University tells her that the reason she hasn’t been able to spot the very special albino deer that hands out at Doe Bay is perhaps because Saber and the deer share a spirit. They can’t be in the same place at the same time. Saber learns to embrace her difficulties as well as successess while getting to know (and romp with) the handsome man in the Sweet Spot Yurt. Eventually she will discover the truth about herself, and this man.

This book is written with humor–as it pokes fun at me! The author of the Orca King!

Some title ideas:

Doing In Lover’s Lane
In Search of Lover’s Lane
Doe Bay
Doing Doe Bay
Finding the Sweet Spot
The Orca Prince
After the Orca King
Chasing Orca
At the Crossroads of Enchanted Forest and Lover’s Lanes
The Orca King Rides Again
Doing the Albino
Making Waves in the Forest
The Orca King, Jr.
Deer Orca King
Fiction Walking
Fiction Swimming
The Sweet Spot
The Sweet Spot Yurt
Son of Big Tom

What do you think? The person who helps me develop the title will receive a free copy of the book when it comes out. Thanks!

Darr

I’m going to Pirates No. 3 today! But here’s my favorite clip (taken by me, with my camera posed at the TV while my daughter hit pause on the DVD) from Pirates No. 2.

****hours later****

All righty then. POTC3 has all of the stuff that made the first movie SO WONDERFUL and all of the fabulous CGI effects that made the second movie so facinating. I’ve never been a big fan of incredibly thin actresses who should be eating a sandwhich instead of shopping for another size zero dress, but goodness…Keira Knightly was astoundingly good in this movie. She steals the show. She is no shrinking violet, I dare say. She is the King. There was just enough romance tossed into this wild adventure to make me gush with delight and of course, we meet Jack Sparrow’s father. And mother. Kind of.

Loved it. Walked out the theater door and went back to the box office and bought tickets for Sunday 10:30 a.m Me and the kid loved this movie!

Darr

The students were counting strides from 3 horses each walking, extended walk, collected walk, extended collected walk, trot, extended trot and cantor. This is my daughter’s riding instructor galloping the old man of the stable–a retired racehorse. That’s me in the background with the “Oh, my!” and my daughter yelling “I love you!”

After a long day of recording the strides of various horses over a 108 foot stretch of an arena, we were all a little nuts. Thereby, came the running of the dauchshund. The data will be added to my daughter’s science project. I hope her teacher has a sense of humor. (Yes, that’s moi sniggering in the background.)

Jerrod didn’t recall how he felt about public displays of affection in his life before Vesper Highgate-Adaire. He didn’t recall so many things. This, open mouth, full-on body clutching soul-kiss in the fresh meats section of the Marshes Coomb grocery market therefore, felt like a ‘first.’ As exciting as a first time and with twice as much anticipation and need as any other kiss he’d shared with this delightful daughter of a Mooncusser.

I’m proofing Mooncusser Cove today, and yanno…I like this scene. Damn. If I were a reader and read this, I’d want to read more. Ego alert: Sometimes I’m so brilliant! HA!

Darr